Trillanes to request AMLC for Duterte bank records

Calling President Duterte’s bluff, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said he will formally request the Anti-Money Laundering Council ( AMLC) to release the transaction records of the Chief Executive’s accounts in the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) from 2006 to 2015.

Trillanes said he would write to the AMLC to test whether Duterte was serious in urging the council to release his bank transaction records.

“That’s just a smokescreen but I’ll call his bluff. I’ll write to the AMLC and ask for all the reported and flagged transactions and what they will do,” Trillanes told radio station dzBB yesterday.

He said if Duterte really gave his go signal to the AMLC, the council would grant his request.

Trillanes said the AMLC normally divulges bank records only if there is an authorized investigation, but the council might agree to his request, saying it is of “public

interest.”

The reported P200 million that passed through the accounts of Duterte and his partner Honeylet Avancena should have been reflected in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, Trillanes said.

The senator said Duterte’s claim that his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sarah Du te rte, was a lawyer whose clients’ payments accounted for the P100 million in her bank accounts was suspicious as she herself in the past admitted that she was no longer practicing her profession.

“What about (Duterte sons) Paolo and Sebastian? What are they doing?” Trillanes asked, referring also to their bank accounts that had hundreds of millions of pesos.

Trillanes has accused Duterte of not declaring the P2 billion in his bank accounts, an amount that the senator claimed was obtained illegally. He made the same accusation days before the May 2016 polls, which Duterte won by a landslide.

Duterte has dismissed Trillanes’ allegations as rehashed issues and even vowed to resign if the senator can prove that he has even half a billion in his bank accounts.

Asked by government radio station dzRB if Duterte would release his bank account’s transaction history, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella replied: “That’s his call. I guess he said anything but I suppose he will, yes.”